Rush Holt claims a clear majority of Americans support plan to provide free prescription contraceptive coverage

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt says the federal mandate requiring most health care plans to offer free contraceptive coverage makes sense.

And he claims a majority of Americans agree with him.

Fierce debate on the issue erupted when guidelines issued by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department that required insurance plans to cover birth control as preventive services, without co-pays or deductibles, were made final without exemptions for some employers with religious affiliations. On Feb. 10, President Barack Obama announced a compromise: if a religious-affiliated employer objected to providing contraceptive coverage, the responsibility would fall on the insurance company.

In a Feb. 24 e-mail newsletter explaining his support for Obama’s decision, Holt (D- 12th Dist.) said: "Nearly all American women, including women of faith, have used contraception sometimes, and a clear majority of Americans support removing the cost-sharing requirement for prescription contraceptive coverage."

Our colleagues at PolitiFact national recently ruled on a claim that addressed the first half of Holt’s statement. A White House official said: "Most women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, have used contraception." That claim earned a Mostly True.

With the birth control plan still under fierce scrutiny, we questioned Holt’s other claim. Despite all the rancor, do Americans favor the plan?

Holt’s spokesman, Thomas Seay, pointed to a February health tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation that found that 63 percent of respondents support the "new federal requirement that private health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control" and 33 percent oppose it. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.

But that’s just one poll of 1,519 adults. We found seven other surveys that asked respondents about their views on requiring health care plans to cover birth control. Five support Holt’s claim.

A CBS News/New York Times poll found an even larger majority of Americans -- 66 percent -- support the plan requiring private health insurance plans to cover the full cost of birth control. About a quarter of respondents opposed the plan, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. When asked specifically about the same requirement for employers with religious affiliations, support decreased slightly, with 61 percent in favor and 31 percent opposed.

A recent Fox News poll found 61 percent of respondents supported "requiring employer health plans to cover birth control for women" and 34 percent opposed. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

A survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling conducted on behalf of Planned Parenthood and a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute both found majorities in support of employers providing health care plans that would cover the cost of birth control.

Another poll conducted for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found 53 percent of respondents favored the requirement and 33 percent opposed it, with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. That’s a majority, but one that could possibly be affected by the margin of error.

Two of the polls we reviewed found opposition to providing free birth control coverage.

A Quinnipiac University poll with a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points found a split of 47 percent in support of requiring private employers to offer free birth control coverage and 48 percent opposed.

A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports -- widely considered Republican-leaning -- found 46 percent opposed the plan and 43 percent supported it. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Our ruling

Holt  said "a clear majority of Americans support removing the cost-sharing requirement for prescription contraceptive coverage."

We found eight polls that recently asked respondents whether they supported or opposed requiring health care plans to cover the cost of birth control.

In six of those surveys there was majority support, only one of which could be impacted by a margin of error. Two others polls showed more opposition than support. Still, Holt’s claim is backed by most of the polls we reviewed.

Overall, this claim is Mostly True.

To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com.

Featured Fact-check

Loretta Weinberg

stated on May 11, 2011 in a speech at women’s health roundtable discussion

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